Lately I'm on a quest to use some of the meat that's in my freezer. That was the main reason I decided to thaw out some steaks recently. I had no idea just how I would cook them, but when I looked through a few cookbooks, a recipe caught my eye in Food to Live By, that wonderful cookbook from Earthbound Farms that I've been raving about. The idea of serving steak with a sauce made of olives sounded pretty unique, but good.

This recipe uses a cast-iron grill pan, and this is my beloved grill pan. There are lots of companies that make a Square Grill Pan, but I highly recommend cast iron because it's indestructible, heats evenly, and stays hot. Everyone needs a cast iron grill pan!

In the cookbook, this sauce is called the Goodman Family Olive Sauce, and when I make it again, I'll be a bit more careful to keep the olives chunky. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing about the recipe, and it's something I'd definitely make again. And I do have a few more steaks in the freezer!

Pan-Grilled Steak with Olive Sauce
(Makes 4 servings, recipe from Food to Live By with slight adaptations by Kalyn.)

Ingredients:
4 lean, tender steaks (use a cut like top loin, top sirloin or well-trimmed New York steak)
olive oil, to rub steak
salt and fresh ground pepper to rub steak

Instructions:
Remove steaks from refrigerator and rub with olive oil and season on both sides with salt and pepper, then let come to room temperature.

While steak is coming to room temperature, put garlic, salt, dijon mustard, lemon juice, black olives, green olives, Kalamata olives, and half of olive oil in food processor or mini-chopper. Pulse until olives are coarsely chopped, then blend at full speed for a few seconds to combine all ingredients. (Don't over process like I did!) Remove from processor and stir in olive oil.

Put cast iron grill pan on top of stove, turn on burner to medium, and heat pan for about 5 minutes before putting meat in pan. (If the pan starts to slightly smoke, it's hot enough!) Lay steaks at a diagonal and cook until grill marks are showing, about 3 minutes. Rotate and cook about 3 minutes more on first side, then turn and cook 3-5 minutes more on second side, depending on how done you like it.

I cooked my one-inch thick steaks exactly 10 minutes and they were perfectly medium-rare. If you have a meat thermometer, this is a good time to use it. For medium-rare, the temperature should be 130F. (The recipe gave instructions for heating the pan in a 500F oven, then cooking the steak as described above. Since it's hot here, I didn't want to heat the oven, and this stovetop method was great. Of course, the steak could also be grilled on a gas or charcoal barbecue.)

Remove steak from pan and let rest about 5 minutes, then serve with olive sauce spooned over the top. This recipes makes slightly over one cup of olive sauce, which will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks. The sauce would be good on tomatoes, chicken breasts, or fish, or as a spread on sandwiches.

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Oh my, Kalyn! That looks delicious. That looks exactly how i like my steak. the Olive Sauce is very interesting. It's very early in the morning and i haven't even had my breakfast yet you got me craving this now. :)

Elise, isn't it the greatest pan ever for cooking meat? And so inexpensive and will last a lifetime! Thanks for the nice words about the photo. I do find meat so hard to photograph, bit I think I'm improving on my meat photos. I bought a tripod (I know, finally!) which really helps.

Mae, thanks. The olive sauce was so great on this steak. I'm not a big red meat eater, but steak does taste great once in a while.

Ghost, not sure who told you that but if you check Google, you'll find that any number of sites list 130F for medium-rare steak, such as Wikipedia on steak, What's Cooking America Meat Temperatures, and many more. The meat continues to cook when you take it off the heat, so this is the temperature when you stop cooking, not the final temp.

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